Picking Up the Pieces
by timesquaretang
Summary: First Fanfic! I decided to write a neutral side to the Booth and Brennan situation. The story starts off with Angela just finding out the backside of why Booth called off the engagement. Thank you to faithinbonesffn for encouraging me to upload this. The story is now becoming more Booth and Brennan centered.
1. Chapter 1

Hi! This is my first try at writing a Fanfic. I know that some people dislike Angela's reactions to Booth and some are fine with it. So, I decided to write a chapter that's neutral. Reviews would be a big help. A super big thank you to faithinbonesffn for the beta, review, and the encouragement to upload this! Enjoy.

I don't own Bones

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Angela had just finished hearing from Brennan the whole story behind Booth calling off the engagements. Unable to sort out her feelings, she took an early lunch break and walked over to Booth's office at the FBI building. Walking up to his office door, she noticed he was speaking to someone on the phone. Seconds later, she was able to tell Booth was talking to Brennan.

"Bones, I'm positive Christine won't get cavities. It wasn't that much candy!" Booth sighed as Brennan explained how cavities quickly developed in children because of candy eating habits.

"Okay, okay.. Yes I understand. Look, we'll talk about this later okay? Alright. I love you too, bye."

A small grin was now plastered on Angela's face. She always loved when they bickered. Holding onto her purse, she knocked on Booth's door.

"Come in!" Booth got up from his office chair, expecting Cullen to be at the door.

"Angela!" Surprised, he sat back in his seat. It had been a while since Angela had come to visit him, let alone have a full conversation with him.

Angela stood there, not quite sure what to say or what to do.

"Is something wrong? Sit down."

Angela, who hadn't greeted him yet, took a seat in front of his desk. "Brennan told me what happened about the whole marriage thing and Pelant."

Booth wasn't surprised, since they were best friends, and Angela knew Brennan just as well as he did.

"So she told you why I broke off the engagement, and how he threatened to kill people?"

"Yes. Everything. Including the make-up sex you two had after she told you she still had faith in you. I DID NOT need to know that, by the way."

The two shared a good laugh at how Brennan was always blunt about things like these. They always laughed at these moments.

Silence quickly overcame the atmosphere, with a mix of awkwardness.

"Well, I'm glad she told you everything. I don't want people to think that I broke the engagement off because I didn't love her or anything. And now that Pelant is gone and Bones and I are married, I feel really good about where I am. I don't want anything to change."

Booth wasn't sure what else to say. Angela found out everything, what more was there to talk about?

Angela smiled at him.

"Do you remember when Brennan had to run away with Christine because of Pelant? And how you were so pissed off at me because I was communicating with her but you couldn't?"

Booth nodded, remembering how furious and melancholy he was two years ago.

"Well, that was how I felt when I heard that you broke off the engagement. I was mad because you were always the one who wanted to get married, and then suddenly you called off the engagement. I was sad because my best friend was so hurt, and seeing those walls begin to build up again was like a stab to the heart."

Angela began to tear up while Booth got up to give her a tissue and a hug. He and Angela always had this special bond because of Brennan. They both loved her to death and always understood her in ways no other person could. They both hated to see Brennan in pain.

"Angela, I didn't mean for anyone to get upset. I knew people would start thinking things and saying things about me. But I couldn't do anything about it. I was definitely NOT going to risk my happiness for the lives of other people, who could have possibly been the love of my life and my daughter and you and Hodgins and the rest of this family. I couldn't risk that. I was willing to take a couple of punches in the gut until I got this whole mess sorted out."

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And, there you have it. Hated it? Loved it? Want me to continue? Reviews would be great! Thank you for reading.


	2. Chapter 2

Wow! Thank you for all the reviews, you guys. I'm so happy that they were all positive feedback. I've decided to continue this story. To be honest, I have no idea how I'm going to continue. This will probably start drifting onto a Booth and Brennan centered Fanfic. What do you think? Also, if you like my stories, you should check out faithinbones's stories(pretty sure you have already)! I have her to thank for. Anyways, on with the story.

I don't own Bones

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Hearing Booth tell her that he chose to be hated instead of putting all of their lives at risk brought a sense of pride to her. She always knew that Booth was a good guy.  
She thought back to the time when Booth told Brennan,

"You take one of us away, and you and Hodgins are in that hole forever."

They were a team. A family. They functioned _together_. And if one of them was out of the picture, nothing would be the same.

While Angela thought about that, Booth thought of the time Cam and him went drinking while he was recovering from his coma. She had told him that he was in love with Brennan.

"Be sure about your feelings because if you crack that shell, and you change your mind she'll, die of loneliness before she'll trust anyone ever again."

Booth thought about that night he called off the engagement, and how closed up Brennan had become. He hated seeing her like that, but he had to do it to protect them. And when she told him that she wasn't leaving him, he knew that they would get through this together.

They sat there, thinking about moments in the past with a nostalgic countenance. When they both snapped out of their daydream, they sat there. But this time, there was no awkward silence - no elephant in the room.

Booth was the first to speak.

"Angela, look. We've both said some things out of context. It's going to be hard for us to let them go, knowing how stubborn we both are. But why don't we try to put this in the past? It'll be hard to pick up the pieces, but we can do it."

Angela smiled back at him. She had missed having the hot FBI guy to admire once in a while.

"Yeah, big guy. We're not that old anyways. We have time."

Booth nodded, using his charm smile.

"I can help you decode Brennan's science talk again!"

Another chuckle passed through the room.

Looking at her watch, Angela was about to say goodbye when a person entered the room. It was Brennan, coming in to discuss the case with Booth. She came in to see a surprise.

"Angela? What are you doing here?"

Brennan was surprised and confused. The last time she had seen an interaction between her husband and best friend was in their living room, and it definitely wasn't pleasant.

They both smiled back at her, with smiles on their faces.

"Sweetie! We were just talking about you."

"Yeah, and about your science talk."

Brennan was even more confused at this point.

"You two.. Talking? To each other? Has something bad happened? Have we gotten more evidence from the suspect?"

Angela looked at Booth and then back at Brennan with a chuckle.

"Sweetie, why don't you sit down and talk with your husband. I have to go find mine. He's probably doing some crazy experiment with Finn again."

Brennan sat down in place of Angela.

"Actually, they were about to conduct an illogical experiment when Cam stopped them. However, I do admit that sometimes their results from these experiments do provide us with more clues."

Angela shook her head, and left the office.

Sighing calmly, she walked to the elevator. It was time to talk to her husband about all of this.

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You made it to the end - congrats! Now, how did you like this one? I brought a lot of moments from past seasons back. As I progress into future chapters, they will get longer - so stay with me!. Oh, Happy Belated Halloween! Stay tuned! Thank you for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

I'm still here I'm still here! Are you? Sorry for the delay. My muse left me, and school is a hassle. But enough excuses, here is Chapter 3. There's a nice Booth and Brennan ending as a treat for all of us! Enjoy.

I don't own Bones

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Angela, now walking back to the Jeffersonian, thought about her conversation with Hodgins a couple of weeks back.

_"I know that you think I should stay out of it, but detachment isn't really my thing."_

"_What's with the printer?"_

_"I know what you did there."_

_"I'm telling you, Angie, there is something going on with Booth that we don't know about."_

Smiling, she walked towards his office. Seeing that he was blending what looked at slugs, she stopped right at the door, her smile now turned into a grimace.

"Please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing." Angela looked at him and then back at the slugs.

Hodgins responded innocently, he was so excited to blend the slugs to feed his mosquito that he forgot Angela's distaste for gory stuff - especially something like this.

"I just need to blend up these slugs for Jefferson. I don't want him to be hungry all the time."

Angela, disgusted, chuckled. He was never going to change, and she loved that. She remembered Hodgins giving birth to a mosquito on Monday, and how he had named it.

"Okay bug man. I have a confession to make."

Hodgins stopped his work immediately.  
"Ange, did you eat all the ice cream again? We were supposed to have some tonight!"

"No, I did not eat all the ice cream again. I only finished it last time because I decided to watch Titanic again." Angela scoffed at him, and then stopped herself before she started talking about Titanic.

"I..came here..to tell you that.."

Before Angela got to continue, Hodgins cut her off.

"Oh my God is Grayson back? Is your dad back in town?!" Hodgins couldn't help but jump to conclusions, he was a conspiracy theorist at heart.

Angela sighed. "No! Can you please let me finish?" With this, Hodgins sat down in his chair and listened. "As I was saying - I came here to tell you that you were right. Nope don't say anything right now, I need to get it all out. Remember after Booth called off the engagement with Brennan? And how I was furious with Booth and you told me that there had to be some justified reason? Well, you were right."

Hodgins, not overly surprised, smiled back at Angela.

"Well, that was much more important than ice cream." Hodgins got up and kissed Angela on the cheek.

"I'm just glad that now everything is slowly returning back to normal. And I don't care that you were wrong and I was right," Hodgins said a bit happily, "Now we can all move past this. By the way, what was the reason?"

Angela looked at him. "Pelant."

Hodgins was again not surprised.

"Well, now he's gone. He can't hurt us anymore."

Not wanting to dwell more on the situation, he kissed Angela on the lips.

"I'm really lucky to have married you, Angela."

Angela smiled cheerily, and kissed him right back.

"Me too, Hodgins. I have to go work on the facial reconstructions now, though. You should get back to your.. Whatever you were doing before."

Angela walked out of Hodgins's office and back into hers.

Back at the Hoover building, it was Booth and Brennan's turn to have a chat.

Brennan was still astonished that Booth and Angela had been conversing with each other - like they used to - in Booth's office. She had came into the office ready to talk about the case with Booth but now found herself aiming the conversation somewhere else.

"Have I been daydreaming for a long time or were you and Angela just having a conversation that did not involve snide remarks?"

Brennan was glad her husband and best friend were talking, but was confused on how that came to be.

Booth stared calmly at her, and slowly grinned. _I love this woman_, he thought.

"Well, Angela decided to come to my office. I thought we would have another argument again, but she stood there nervously."

Booth looked at Brennan. She nodded her head, urging him to continue.

"I told her to sit down, and she did. A couple of seconds later, she told me that you explained to her the whole Pelant incident."

Booth took a short sigh, and continued.

"I wasn't really sure how to continue, but we talked it out. We had said somethings to each other that we'd probably never let go of because we're just that damn stubborn, but we promised to work it out."

Booth, like Hodgins, didn't want to dwell on the topic of Pelant and what he had caused. Now that Brennan knew he and Angela were on good terms, there was no more that needed to be said.

"Oh and then we also talked about your squint talk."

Changing the topic quickly, Booth smiled at Brennan, using his charm smile.

"I still do not understand why it's called squint talk. But perhaps that's because most of the time you don't understand what I'm saying when talking about science."

Feeling like she had just insulted Booth, she tried to make up for it.

"But I'm glad that you two found humor in conversing about my squint talk. And thank you for acknowledging the way I speak."

Booth got up from his chair, and pulled Brennan up to her feet.

One would think that he was going to kiss her, because that was how some couples expressed their love for each other. But no, not Booth and Brennan. They were different. Booth pulled her into his arms, practically engulfing her body into his strong arms. She breathed deeply and laid her head across his shoulders, and he wrapped his arms around her waist. They didn't need kisses to express their love. They had many other ways of doing that. And one was their hugs. Every time they hugged, it was never just a short and simple one. They always embraced each other.

After quite some while standing in the little cocoon that they had both made, Booth pulled away.

"You know I love you, right Bones? And no matter what happens, I always will. Nothing will ever break us apart."

Booth looked intently into Brennan's eyes, and saw the love and desire marked in them.

"I know. I love you too, Booth. Right from the beginning, remember?"

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I wrote a super long chapter because I hadn't updated in so long. Please(empahsis on please) review! This is my first fanfic and I love feedback. Thank you!


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